Findmypast Friday – 8 May 2020

Findmypast

Findmypast Friday: New World War 2 Allies Collection Available To Search For VE Day 2020

Leading family history website, Findmypast has created a new collection of over 15 million WW2 records in celebration of VE Day 2020.

The new “World War 2 Allies Collection” brings together a wide variety of resources covering the Allied Forces. Handpicked by Findmypast’s in-house military experts, the collection includes service records, draft registrations, enlistment records, prisoners of war records, casualty lists, cemetery indexes, rolls of honour and much more.

Covering the British, United States and Canadian armed forces, the collection gives family historians the chance to search for details of their ancestor’s military service all in one place through one simple search. In order to make military research easier, more accurate and more rewarding, Findmypast has brought tighter all existing records that pertain to:

  • Individuals who signed up and served in the British, United States and Canadian armed services.
  • Individuals who were buried in a Commonwealth War Grave
  • Individuals who were buried in National Veterans Cemeteries

Packed with all manner of details on both military and civilian life, many of the records contained within can reveal surprising amounts of information on the lives and military careers of the “greatest generation”. The amount of the information contained in each record will vary depending on the nature of the original document, but typical details include:

  • Your ancestors’ soldier number
  • Their rank and regiment
  • Their attestation year
  • Their date of death and where they were laid to rest

From the British Armed Services, the following record sets are included in the collection:

  • Army Lists 1939-1945
  • Army Roll of Honour 1939-1945
  • British Army casualty lists 1939-1945
  • Civilian casualties in Britain 1940-1945
  • Coldstream Guards 1939-1945
  • CWGC 1939-1945
  • Durham Home Guard 1940-1945
  • Faces of the Fallen
  • Honourable Artillery Company 1939-1945
  • Prisoners of War 1939-1945
  • Royal Air Force combat reports
  • Royal Air Force operations record books 1939-1945
  • Royal Artillery enlistments from 1910
  • Royal Tank Corps enlistments 1919-1934
  • Royal Welch Fusiliers 1920-1946
  • Scots Guards 1939-1945
  • Scotland, Forfarshire (Angus), Dundee, DC Thomson Staff War Album 1939-1945

While from the American Armed Forces, you’ll find:

  • US Servicemen in North Devon
  • Historical Society of Pennsylvania World War II Casualty Cards
  • National Veterans Cemetery Index
  • Louisiana Draft Cards, 1940-1959
  • Maine, Second World War Enlistment Record Index
  • Delaware County, Pennsylvania, Veteran Graves Index, 1775 – 2010 (pull just the relevant years)
  • Veterans with Federal Service Buried in Utah, Territorial to 1966 (pull just the relevant years)
  • World War II Army Enlistment Records
  • US National Archives World War II Army Enlistment Records, Reserve Corps Records Index, 1838-1946
  • Kansas, World War II Selective Service Index
  • Georgia, World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1940 – 1942
  • US National Archives World War II Prisoners of War Index, 1942-1947
  • Duty Locations, Naval Group China, World War II, 1942-1945
  • World War II Prisoners of War
  • Massachusetts Index of Casualties, World War II

The collection also includes a special ‘Faces of the Second World War’ collection from Canada.

Today’s release follows the publication of the exclusive Findmypast’s Photo Archive. Published online for the first time in association with Reach PLC’s MirrorPix Archive, this vast photographic archive consists of more than 10,000 images captured by press photographers for nine publications between 1939 and 1945.

This is the first time many of these images have been published, allowing researchers to come face to face with their ancestors and witness previously unseen scenes from the home front and the front lines.

Many of the original image descriptions created by photographers still survive and much of this information has been indexed and made fully searchable on Findmypast. This enables users to bring the past to life with ease, speed and accuracy by searching thousands of images by keyword, date, and location as well as by category, such as the Armed forces, World War 2, Evacuees, Home Front, Sport, Life Events, Work or Schools.

The current selection of images available to explore form the first phase of a vast collection that will continue to grow as Findmypast and MirrorPix publish additional material covering a wide variety of dates, locations and themes. In time, the Findmypast Photo Archive will expand in scope and scale to include millions of images taken between 1904 – 2000, covering all aspects of British life ranging from sports, education, places of work and daily life to politics, national and local events.

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